THIS PAGE was created while dramaturg (January,
2001->April, 2001) for The Miss Firecracker Contest
(performed at CSU, Chico, over the days of April 3->8, 2001).
The Miss Firecracker Contest was a wonderful production,
produced by a wonderful director, performed by a wonderful cast on a
wonderful set! Enough said! Below you have the following:

WORDS ON THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST
WORDS ON BROOKHAVEN,
MISSISSIPPIWORDS ON
MISSISSIPPI
WORDS ON ACTORSWORDS ON BETH
HENLEYSELECTED EVENTS
LEADING UP TO 1990
SPECIFIC 1990
EVENTS
THE COMPLETE ENSEMBLE FOR
THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST @ CSU, CHICOVISUALS FROM THE CSU,
CHICO PRODUCTION OF APRIL 4->8 2001
OTHER WEB SITES NOT MENTIONED ELSEWHERE

WORDS ON THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST:

"Beth Henley's strange but heartwarmingly funny play is about the
bold efforts of one Southern woman to win a Fourth of July beauty
pageant. The odds against Carnelle are staggering, but she is
determined to win the coveted Miss Firecracker title, and her odd,
but charming friends--Popeye the Seamstress and Mac-Sam the Carnival
Balloon Man--are determined to help her, come hell or high water.
Carnelle finds the perfect dress and develops the perfect tap
routine. However, her reputation as the town's 'hot tamale' makes us
wonder if she will ever succeed in her quest. Susan Pate, Department
of Theatre Arts faculty member, directs The Miss Firecracker
Contest." Kaleidiscioe: Arts Events @ Chico State
2000-2001, page 21.

"Welcome to Brookhaven, Miss. -- where small town
mentality and Southern traditions reign. Carnelle, her cousins,
and her strange friends take us to this fascinating corner of the
USA where we inspect and enjoy some imminent life choices: How do
you discover your path to success when others have already labeled
who you are and determined your future? How do you blaze a trail
of glory for yourself if no one can get past your follies and
indiscretions? Let's find out!" Susan Pate, Director's Note.

From the HBO movie container for The Miss Firecracket
Contest:

"Being an orphan, Carnelle never really felt at home in
Yazoo City, but now her time had come. Hilarious comedy ensues
when this small town girl with big time dreams enters the local
beauty competition to be crowned Miss Firecracker. Joining
Carnelle, and supporting her all of the way (some of the time),
there's Cousin Elain, southern belle and former Miss Firecracker;
Cousin Delmount, back from a nervous breakdown to sell the family
home; Popeye, local seamstress who learned her trade making
clothes for bullfrogs; and Mac Sam, carnival worker and Carnelle's
occasional beau. All these and many more Yazoo City citizens make
this Miss Firecracker contest one you won't want to miss. It's
Carnelle's chance to shine."

"THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST was presented by the
Manhattan Theatre Club, in New York City, on May 1, 1984."
(Dramatists Play Service, Inc.)

"The place is the small Mississippi town of
Brookhaven, the time a few days before the Fourth of July.
Carnell Scott (known locally as 'Miss Hot Tamale') is
rehearsing furiously for the Miss Firecracker Contest - hoping
that a victory will salvage her tarnished reputation and allow her
to leave town in a blaze of glory. The unexpected arrival of her
cousin Elain, herself a former Miss Firecracker winner (who
has walked out on her rich but boring husband and her two small
children) complicates matters a bit, as does the repeated threat
of Elain's eccentric brother, Delmount, (recently released
from a mental institution) to sell the family homestead and decamp
for New Orleans. But, aided by a touchingly awkward seamstress
named Popeye (who is hopelessly smitten by Delmont) and
several cheerful nutty characters, Carnelle perseveres - leading
to a denoument of unparalleled hilarity, compassion and moving
lyricism as all concenred finally escape their unhappy pasts and
turn hopefully toward what must surely be a better future
[stress added]." (From Dramatists Play Service,
Inc.)

WORDS ON BROOKHAVEN,
MISSISSIPPI:

"Brookhaven was founded in 1818 by pioneer Samuel Jayne who
migrated to the area from his former home of Brookhaven in Long
Island, New York. He and his brothers started a post office, store
and mill along the Bogue Chitto River on land originally known as
"Old Brook."

"Here in the midst of the rolling pine forests of
southwest Mississippi, you'll find a dynamic community comprised
of the City of Brookhaven and Lincoln County. With a population of
approximately 12,000 in the city and 35,000 in the county,
Brookhaven boasts the conveniences of a more urbanized area, yet
retains an honest, small town charm. The diverse, local economy
ranges from manufacturing and distribution to technology and
service related business. The economy, combined with the historic
nature of the community, provides residents with some very
interesting opportunities. In Brookhaven, you can live in a
Victorian treasure surrounded by massive oaks or a newly
constructed home with all the latest features. You can shop in one
of the area's many retail centers, browse an old-fashioned
farmer's market, or go downtown where a promenade of restaurants,
shops and businesses in century old architecture line both sides
of the tracks of Amtrak's City of New Orleans passenger
line. The choice of things to do is equally broad, covering
localtheatre productions and fine arts to hunting, fishing, tennis
and golf." http://www.brookhavenms.com/
[Brookhaven, Mississippi} On-Line]

WORDS ON
MISSISSIPPI:

"The valley of the Mississippi is, on the whole, the most
magnificent dwelling-place prepared by God for man's abode; and yet
it may be said that at present it is but a mighty desert." Alexis de
Tocqueville [1805-1859], 1832, Democracy in
America.

"What has four eyes and cannot see? - The Mississippi
River."
Archer Taylor, 1951, English Riddles From Oral
Traditions.

"Mississippi begins in the lobby of Memphis, Tennessee, hotel and
extends south to the Gulf of mexico. It is dotted with little towns
concentric about the ghosts of the horses and mules once tethered to
the hitch-rail enclosing the county courthouse and it might almost be
said to have only two directions, north and south, since until a few
years ago it was impossible to travel east or west in it unless you
walked or rode on the horses or mules." William Faulkner
[1897-1962], 1960, Mississippi. American Panorama: East of
the Mississippi.

"I decline to accept the end of man." William Faulkner
[1897-1962],
December 10, 1950} from his Nobel Prize (Literature) acceptance
speech.

"When you are in Mississippi, the rest of America doesn't seem
real. And when you are in the rest of America, Mississippi doesn't
seem real." Bob Parris Moses, c. 1961, quoted by Jack Newfield, 1971,
Amite Country. Bread and Roses Too.

WORDS ON ACTORS:

"Acting is one of the most exciting, enjoyable, and creative art
forms in existence. It can also be one of the most daunting,
challenging, and humbling experience anyone can face. Cultural
anthropologists tell us that acting, at least in ritual form, is as
old as the first humans sitting around the prehistoric campfire
playing out for the gathered community the roles of demons, hunted
animals, or even rain spirits." Susan Pate, Randy Wonzong, Donna
Breed, 1996, A Beginning Actor's Companion, 3rd edition, page
1.

"What an actor has to have is empathy. If you can't
understand why someone makes the decision they do, then you can't
create a person other than yourself. The talent is the ability to
understand people." Amanda Detmer, CSU, Chico Graduate. The
Sacramento Bee, February 9, 2001, page E5.

"I found a way of getting paid for what I love." Cheryl Krajcar
(18 years old). The Sacramento Bee, February 16, 2001, page
E8. "After graduating from high school she plans on taking a year off
before going on to a four-year college. During that year, she hopes
to either travel around the country with a professional dog handler,
or go to veterinarian technical school so that she can work during
the week and show dogs on the weekend." Elizabeth Hume, 2001, Best Of
Show. The Sacramento Bee, February 9, 2001, page E5.

WORDS ON BETH HENLEY:

"Elizabeth Becker Henley was born May 8, 1952, in
Jackson, Mississippi, the daughter of an attorney and an actress.
Early on she dreamed of becoming an actress, and to that end she
earned a B.F.A. at Southern Methodist University in 1974. While at
SMU, she wrote her first play, the one-act Am I Blue, which
was produced at SMU's Margo Jones Theatre in 1973. In 1976, she moved
to Los Angeles to live with actor/director Stephen Tobolowsky, with
whom she would later collaborate on the screenplay True
Stories. After Crimes of the Heart won its initial award
and was staged in 1979 by the Actors Theatre in Louisville, it
debuted on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre November 4, 1981. ...
Henley followed the success of Crimes of the Heart with The
Miss Firecracker Contest, in which a socially outcast woman,
Carnell Scott, wishes to improve her standing in her small
southern town and decides the best way to do so would be to win the
"Miss Firecracker" beauty contest. As the play opens, Carnelle is
seen onstage dressed in a leotard and draped in an American flag as
she tap-dances and twirls a baton to the accompaniment of "The
Star-Spangled Banner." First produced onstage in Los Angeles in
1980, the play would likewise be adapted into a Hollywood film
with a screenplay by Henley" [stress added]."
From: http://www.webphantom.com/abundance/henley.html.

"Henley's form is uniquely her own. In a New York
Times review in 1981, Frank Rich observes that she "gets her
laughs not because she tells sick jokes, but because she refuses
to tell jokes at all. Her characters always stick to the
unvarnished truth, at any price, never holding back a single gory
detail. And the truth-when captured like lightening in a bottle-
is far funnier than any invented wisecracks." (Dellasega, 251)
Mary Dellasega writes that Henley's comedy is based on "empathetic
understanding of her characters' desperation." (251) Whether she
intends to or not, Beth Henley does change the world." From:
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/5379/henley.html.

"Beth Henley won a Pulitzer Prize at [age] 28 for her
play, Crimes of the Heart. Her writing is eagerly awaited. Yet
she faces a struggle no different from your own." Susan Shaughnessy,
1993, Walking on Alligators: A Book Of Meditations For Writers
(NY: Harper Collins/HarperSanFrancisco), page 63.

"I love to work, although sometimes I can spend whole
days doing nothing more than picking the lint off the carpet and
talking to my mother on the phone." (Beth Henley)

"[1991] Interviewer [Cynthia Wimmer-Moul]:
When you're writing a character, how much of their history do you
know? Do you feel that you really know where they come from and their
surroundings and how they were educated?

Henley: Very much, because I write each character
as though I were playing them, as if I had to perform them, and I
really want to know. Every character has a secret, every character
has a reaction to the other characters, every character has a
greatest fear, and every character has a greatest dream; and I
want to know what their sense of humor is and what their sexuality
is and how they dress and how they talk. It's great because you
can play all these parts you'd never be cast in." Jackson R.
Bryer, 1995, The Playwright's Art: Conversations With
Contemporary American Dramatists (Rutgers University Press),
pages 102-122, page 111.

SPECIFIC 1990 EVENTS:

Leading up to The Miss Firecracker Contest of July 4, 1990 (the
"date" of the CSU, Chico play presented April 3->8, 2001).

January 1990January 1} Sports News Network begins operation on cable TV.
January 2} Dow Jones hits record 2,800.
January 3} General Manuel Noriega (Panama) surrenders to US troops
and is arrested in drug-trafficking charges.
January 7} San Salvador military involved in the murder of six Jesuit
priests in that country.
January 10} Martial Law is ended in Beijing, China.
January 26} K. Endate & K. Watanabe discover asteroid #6390
Hirabayashi.
January 28} San Francisco 49ers beat the Denver Broncos 55-10 to win
Super Bowl XXIV in New Orleans, Louisiana.

February 1990February 5} Notre Dame becomes 1st team to sell its game to a
major network (NBC).
February 11} After 27 years in a South African prison, Nelson Mandela
is freed.
February 13} Drexel Burhham Lambert Group, Inc. files for Chapter 11
bankruptcy.
February 14} Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar
system.
February 16} Former President Reagan testifies (by videotape) in the
Iran-Contra Trial.
February 19} Police kill 8 demonstrators for multi-party system in
Nepal.
February 28} USA launches the 65th manned space mission STS 36
(Atlantis 6) into orbit.

March 1990March 2} Greyhound Bus goes on strike.
March 5} A. Sugie discovers asteroid #4461 Sayama.
March 11} Lithuania declares its independence from the Soviet
Union.
March 14} 4th Soul Train Music Awards: Soul II Soul, Janet
Jackson.
March 18} $100,0000,000 in art work stolen from a Boston museum.
March 22} Joseph Hazelwood, Captain of the Exxon Valdez, found
guilty of negligence.
March 30} Jack Nicklaus makes his debut in the "Seniors" golf
tournament.

April 1990April 1} 9th NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: Stanford beats
Auburn 88-81.
April 4} Security law violator Ivan Boesky is released from federal
custody.
April 13} Final episode of Pat Sajak's late night TV show on CBS.
April 20} Pete Rose pleads guilty to filing false tax returns and
agrees to pay $366,000 in back taxes.
April 22} The 20th Anniversary of "Earth Day."
April 23} US Government begans keeping records of "hate crimes" under
a bill signed by President Bush.
April 24} "Junk Bond King" Michael Milken fined $600,000,000 in fraud
case (related to Drexel Burhham Lambert Group, Inc.).
April 25} US Space Shuttle Discovery places the 12.5 ton
Hubble Space Telescope into orbit 381 miles above the planet
Earth.
April 28} An estimated 200,000 to 700,000 partipants at an
anti-abortion rally in Washington, D.C.

May 1990May 5} 116th Kentucky Derby: Craig Perret aboard Unbridled
wins in 2:02.
May 11} NY Yankees trade Dave Winfield to Angels for Mike Witt.
May 13} Two US Airmen murdered at Clark Air Force Base,
Philippines.
May 23} Estimated "bailout" of failed Savings & Loans in the USA
could be as high as $130,000,000,000 (twice the estimate of earlier
projections).
May 25} Scientists from the United Nations forecast "Global
Warming."
May 28} Dave Thomas Comedy Show, debuts on CBS-TV.
May 31} Seinfeld starring Jerry Seinfeld, debuts on NBC as
Seinfeld Chronicles.

June 1990June 1} President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union and USA
President George Bush meet in Washington, D.C.
June 4} The trial of Marion Barry, Mayor of Washington, D.C. begins
(on cocaine charges).
June 4} Dr. Jack Kevorkian assists with a "suicide machine" in
Michigan.
June 7} President F.W. de Klerk ends the 4-year-old "State of
Emergency" in three of the four provinces of South Africa.
June 14} The Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York City, Cardinal
John J. O'Occonor, writes of the risk of excommunication for those
who advocate, perform, or obtain an abortion.
June 20} Nelson Mandela given ticker-tape parade in New York
City.
June 21} An estimated 40,000 killed and 60,000 injured when a 7.7
earthquake strikes Iran.
June 23} Canada has constitutional crisis concerning status of
Province of Quebec.
June 26} President George Bush issues a statement listing "tax
revenue increases" are needed reduce the budget deficit.

July 1990July 1} Treaty creates a unified economic and monetary system for
nations of West Germany and East Germany.
July 2} Imelda Marcos & Adnan Khashoggi found not guilty of
racketeering.
July 3} In Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 1,426 pilgrims crushed to death in a
tunnel leading from a tent city to the holy site.
July 4} France explodes nuclear test at Muruora Atoll, French
Polynesia, South Pacific.

JULY 4 [Wednesday] 1990} The Miss Firecracker
Contest takes place in Brookhaven,
Mississippi!